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The Conduct of Life

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1860 · 19th Century · Essays · English

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Abstract

Written: 1860 (lectures from the 1850s)
Setting: 1850s; Concord, Massachusetts, and the American lecture circuit
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Moral and philosophical essays
Form: Nine prose essays, each headed by a short poem
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Dense, allusive essays; best read one essay at a time.)

Background. Emerson drew the book from lectures he gave across the country in the 1850s and published it in Boston in 1860, at the height of his fame as America's leading lecturer and the chief voice of New England Transcendentalism.

Argument. The essays ask how a person should live within the limits set by nature and circumstance. Emerson admits the power of fate, temperament and heredity, then argues that intellect and will can master them, that power and wealth rightly used serve the mind, that culture and manners refine character, and that a moral law governs the universe so that nothing happens by chance.

Structure. Nine essays: Fate, Power, Wealth, Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty and Illusions, each opening with a few lines of verse and moving by aphorism, anecdote and example rather than by formal argument.

Themes. Fate and freedom, work and money, self-culture, manners, the moral law, beauty, and the gap between appearance and reality; Worship includes the famous observation that our opinion of the world is a confession of character.

Significance. One of Emerson's most widely read books, a storehouse of quotable American wisdom and a key text for understanding Transcendentalist ideas about religion, character and self-government in the nineteenth century.

Key figures

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essayist and lecturer

Summary

The Conduct of Life is Ralph Waldo Emerson's book of nine essays on how a person should live, published in 1860 and drawn from lectures he had given through the 1850s. Where his earlier Essays celebrated self-reliance and the soul's direct access to truth, this later book faces the hard limits of life: temperament, heredity, circumstance and the 'terror of life'. Fate opens with those limits and answers that thought and will can rise above them, ending with an appeal to build altars to the Beautiful Necessity. Power praises health, energy and concentration. Wealth argues that a person should earn his own living, use money well and avoid waste, and that real wealth comes from applying mind to nature. Culture warns against narrow egotism and recommends books, travel, cities and solitude as correctives. Behavior treats manners as the happy ways of doing things and the eye and face as revealers of character. Worship, the center of the book, argues that a moral law runs through the universe, that belief in luck is shallow, and that people reveal their own character by the way they judge the world. Considerations by the Way offers practical advice on friendship, the masses and the uses of difficulty; Beauty defends beauty as a sign of health and order; and Illusions ends with the young mortal alone with the gods amid the shifting appearances of life. The essays are dense and aphoristic, full of memorable sentences, examples from history and science, and sharp observations of American society. They are a primary source for New England Transcendentalism and for the moral outlook of nineteenth-century America. Emerson had left the Unitarian ministry and does not write as an orthodox Christian: his 'worship' is directed to a universal moral law and an impersonal Over-Soul rather than to the God of the creeds. Students can therefore read him both for his insight into character, work and self-government and as a test case in comparing Transcendentalist and Christian accounts of providence, sin and grace. The book suits high school students who read one essay at a time, with a pencil, and who are ready to argue with as well as admire a great American writer.

Virtues in this work

Prudence: Emerson's essays on wealth, culture and behavior give practical counsel for ordering a life.
Industry: He insists that each person should earn his own way and concentrate his powers.

Plot or Argument

I. Fate
Temperament, race and circumstance limit every life, but thought and will can rise above them; Emerson closes with altars to the Beautiful Necessity.
II. Power
Life is a search after power; health, energy, concentration and drill make the effective person.
III. Wealth
Each person should earn a living and spend wisely; true wealth comes from applying mind to nature, with advice on economy and investment.
IV. Culture
Culture corrects egotism and one-sidedness through books, travel, cities, solitude and the discipline of good company.
V. Behavior
Manners are the happy ways of doing things; the eyes and bearing reveal character more than words.
VI. Worship
A moral law runs through the universe; scepticism and luck are shallow, and our opinion of the world confesses our own character.
VII. Considerations by the Way
Practical counsel on friendship, the masses, the uses of trouble and the value of good health and good company.
VIII. Beauty
Beauty is a sign of health, order and fitness, and a guide for the young soul.
IX. Illusions
Life is full of shifting appearances, but beneath them stands an order in which there is no chance and no anarchy.

Lessons

Fate and freedom
Emerson admits that heredity and circumstance limit us, yet insists that 'Intellect annuls Fate.' Students can compare his answer with the Christian teaching that God's providence governs all things while human beings remain responsible.
- What limits does Emerson list in Fate?
- How does he say a person can rise above them?
- How does his idea of necessity differ from Christian providence?
Related across the library
- Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, First Section
  if adversity and hopeless sorrow have completely taken away the relish for life; if the unfortunate one, strong in mind, indignant at his fate rather than desponding or dejected, wishes for death, and yet preserves his life without loving it- not from inclination or fear, but from duty- then his maxim has a moral worth Kant's example of self-preservation from duty when all inclination to live has gone, one of the book's most discussed passages for readers interested in depression and suicide.
- My Ántonia, Summary
  My Ántonia is presented as a memoir written by Jim Burden, a successful New York railroad lawyer, about a Bohemian girl he knew in his Nebraska childhood; a brief introduction by an unnamed friend frames his manuscript. Orphaned at ten, Jim travels from Virginia to live with his grandparents on the prairie near the town of Black Hawk. On the same train is the Shimerda family, Bohemian immigrants who have been swindled into buying a poor homestead and live in a dugout. Jim befriends the eldest daughter, Ántonia,...
- Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales), Full Text
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- Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales), Full Text
  Tailpiece MOTHER HULDA To face page Headpiece Tailpiece LITTLE RED-CAP Headpiece Tailpiece THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS Headpiece Tailpiece PRUDENT HANS Headpiece Tailpiece CLEVER ELSE Headpiece Tailpiece THE TABLE THE ASS AND THE STICK Headpiece Tailpiece TOM THUMB Headpiece Tailpiece HOW MRS FOX MARRIED AGAIN Headpiece Initial Tailpiece THE ELVES Headpiece Initial Initial Tailpiece THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM To face page Headpiece Tailpiece MR KORBES Headpiece Tailpiece TOM THUMB'S TRAVELS Headpiece Tailpiece THE ALMO...
- The Lord of the Rings, Medical lens
  Healing is a real concern of the book. In the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith the herb-master and the old wife Ioreth treat the Black Breath, a deadly despondent sleep that falls on Faramir, Éowyn and Merry after contact with the Nazgûl; Aragorn heals them with athelas and his own call, fulfilling the saying that the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so proving his kingship by medicine before he is crowned. Frodo's wounds from the Morgul-knife and from Shelob, and the long burden of the Ring, re...
Our judgments reveal us
In Worship Emerson writes that our opinion of the world is also a confession of character. A suspicious person sees suspicion everywhere. The idea echoes Christ's warning about the mote and the beam.
- What does Emerson mean by a 'confession of character'?
- Can you think of a time when your judgment of others said more about you?
- How does Matthew 7:3-5 make a similar point?
Related across the library
- Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Full Text
  incessant misrepresentation A year since I submitted entirely to your Lordship's authority and with the intention of following out the particular act enjoined upon me I not only stopped the series of Tracts on which I was engaged but withdrew from all public discussion of Church matters of the day or what may be called ecclesiastical politics I turned myself at once to the preparation for the Press of the translations of St Athanasius to which I had long wished to devote myself and I intended and intend to emplo...
- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ch. V, Conclusion
  Compromise is as impossible between the Church of Christ and the idolatry of wealth, which is the practical religion of capitalist societies, as it was between the Church and the State idolatry of the Roman Empire. Tawney's own closing judgment as a Christian socialist; readers who defend commercial society have contested it, while others have taken it as a call to the Church.
- The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. ii
  the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another. Smith names the human disposition from which the division of labour arises.
- Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, Dissent of Justice Story (excerpt)
  It is a principle of common sense, as well as of law, that when a thing is granted, whatever is necessary to its enjoyment, is granted also. Story, answering Blackstone, states the rule of implied grants on which the proprietors relied.
- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ch. II, The Continental Reformers, sec. 3, Calvin
  It was a creed which sought, not merely to purify the individual, but to reconstruct Church and State, and to renew society by penetrating every department of life, public as well as private, with the influence of religion. Tawney contrasts the active, reforming character of Calvinism with the socially conservative piety of Lutheranism.
Earning, spending and character
In Wealth Emerson argues that each person should pay his own way and spend for the higher purposes of life. Students can weigh his practical advice against Scripture's teaching on stewardship and contentment.
- Why does Emerson think everyone should earn a living?
- What does he say about debt and waste?
- What would a Christian add to his advice?
Related across the library
- The Varieties of Religious Experience, In Filial Gratitude And Love
  now he should never go back and never again suffer political interests to gain dominion over him he would be for practical intents and purposes a permanently transformed being Our ordinary alterations of character as we pass from one of our aims to another are not commonly called transformations because each of them is so rapidly succeeded by another in the reverse direction but whenever one aim grows so stable as to expel definitively its previous rivals from the individual s life we tend to speak of the phenom...
- The Consolation of Philosophy, Source
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- On the Making of Man, Source
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- Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, Full Text
  years from the opening of the bridge and at the expiration of that time it was to belong to the commonwealth The corporation have regularly paid to the college the annual sum of l and have performed all of the duties imposed on them by the terms of their charter In the legislature of Massachusetts incorporated a company by the name of The Proprietors of the Warren Bridge for the purpose of erecting another bridge over Charles river This bridge is only sixteen rods at its commencement on the Charlestown side from...
- The Warden, Hiram'S Hospital
  adding twopence a day to each man's pittance making a sum of sixty-two pounds eleven shillings and fourpence which he was to pay out of his own pocket In doing so however he distinctly and repeatedly observed to the men that though he promised for himself he could not promise for his successors and that the extra twopence could only be looked on as a gift from himself and not from the trust The bedesmen however were most of them older than Mr Harding and were quite satisfied with the security on which their extr...

Context

Emerson published The Conduct of Life in December 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, when he was the most famous lecturer in America.

Composition

The essays grew out of lectures Emerson gave during the 1850s. The book was published by Ticknor and Fields in Boston; the stored text is from an 1871 Boston printing.

Reception

The book sold well and became one of Emerson's most widely read volumes, valued for its practical wisdom and its many quotable sentences.

Virtue Ethics Fate / Free Will Money Wealth Faith / Religion Identity Self

Comparisons

Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays)
Emerson's earlier Essays (1841, 1844) celebrate self-reliance; The Conduct of Life tempers that confidence with a fuller sense of fate and limits.
Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanack
Franklin's practical maxims on industry, frugality and self-government anticipate the counsel in Wealth and Behavior, without Emerson's Transcendentalist metaphysics.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, VI. Worship (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Five Children and It, Full Text
way round by the road as if you were a cart Each of the children carried its own spade and took it in turns to carry the Lamb He was the baby and they called him that because Baa' was the first thing he ever said They called Anthea Panther' which seems silly when you read it but when you say it it sounds a little like her name The gravel-pit is very large and wide with grass growing round the edges at the top and dry stringy wildflowers purple and yellow It is like a giant's wash-hand basin And there are mounds...
Chartism, Summary
Chartism is Thomas Carlyle's answer to the first great working-class political movement in Britain. Written in the autumn of 1839, after the People's Charter had been rejected by the House of Commons and while riots and arrests filled the newspapers, it was issued by James Fraser as a small book with 1840 on the title page. Its first chapter gave Victorian debate a lasting phrase, the Condition-of-England Question. Carlyle's starting claim is that the Reform Ministry has suppressed the 'chimera' of Chartism but...
Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), Summary
Theodore Roosevelt had been President since McKinley's assassination in September 1901, and on 4 March 1905 he took the oath for a term he had won in a landslide. His address from the East Portico is about a thousand words long, one of the shortest of the twentieth century, and it never mentions a specific policy, party, or program. He begins with thanks "to the Giver of Good" and with a warning against vainglory. Americans laid their foundations on a new continent and are "the heirs of the ages," spared many pe...
Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Full Text
Bishops and doctors of the first eight centuries being of good authority and credit with the people Of the declaration of Christ and His apostles and all the rest of the Holy Fathers Of the authority of both Scripture and also of Augustine Of Augustine Chrysostom Ambrose Jerome and about thirty other Fathers to some of whom they give the title of Saint to others of ancient Catholic Fathers and doctors They declare that not only the holy apostles and disciples of Christ but the godly Fathers also before and since...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Source
an early stage of Gawain s story was undoubtedly his love I think it not impossible that she was an integral part of the tale as first told and her r le here was determined by that which she originally played In most versions of the story she has dropped out altogether It is of course possible that there being but a confused reminiscence of the original tale her share may have been modified by the influence of the Launfal group but I should prefer to explain the episode on the whole as a somewhat distorted survi...

Frequently cited

“Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, I. Fate (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales), Full Text
Produced by Suzanne Shell Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http www pgdp net HOUSEHOLD STORIES GRIMM HOUSEHOLD STORIES FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE BROS GRIMM TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LUCY CRANE AND DONE INTO PICTURES BY WALTER CRANE DOVER PUBLICATIONS INC NEW YORK This new Dover edition first published in is an unabridged republication of the work first published by Macmillan and Company in Standard Book Number Library of Congress Catalog Card Number Manufactured in the Unite...
Selected Sermons and Reformation Treatises, Plague counsel
His advice about remaining, fleeing, and caring for neighbors during epidemic disease combines prudence with vocation.
Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales), Full Text
Tailpiece MOTHER HULDA To face page Headpiece Tailpiece LITTLE RED-CAP Headpiece Tailpiece THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS Headpiece Tailpiece PRUDENT HANS Headpiece Tailpiece CLEVER ELSE Headpiece Tailpiece THE TABLE THE ASS AND THE STICK Headpiece Tailpiece TOM THUMB Headpiece Tailpiece HOW MRS FOX MARRIED AGAIN Headpiece Initial Tailpiece THE ELVES Headpiece Initial Initial Tailpiece THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM To face page Headpiece Tailpiece MR KORBES Headpiece Tailpiece TOM THUMB'S TRAVELS Headpiece Tailpiece THE ALMO...
The Lord of the Rings, Book IV, Chapter 2 and following
Gollum's divided talk between Sméagol and Gollum as he argues with himself over the precious.
Paradise Lost, Book III
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall The Father explains that he created man upright and free, so the fault of the Fall will be man's own.

Frequently cited

“The first wealth is health.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, II. Power (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays), II. Self-Reliance, early paragraphs on nonconformity
Emerson says he wants his life to be sound and sweet and not to need diet and bleeding, using the period's standard remedies as a figure for a life propped up from outside.
Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays), VII. Prudence
Counsel on health, diet, sleep and the body as the lower but necessary art of living.
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., Full Text
list of data in this instance the sequence of cDNA that codes for the BRCA1 amino acids listed in claim Importantly SEQ ID NO lists only the cDNA exons in the BRCA1 gene rather than a full DNA sequence contain- ing both exons and introns See id at stating that SEQ ID NO s MOLECULE TYPE is cDNA As a re- sult the Federal Circuit recognized that claim asserts a patent on the cDNA nucleotide sequence listed in SEQ ID NO which codes for the typical BRCA1 gene F d at n id at Moore J concurring in part id at Bryson J c...
Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays), II. Self-Reliance
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. After describing society as a joint-stock company that trades liberty for bread, Emerson calls for independence of mind.
The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. ii
the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another. Smith names the human disposition from which the division of labour arises.

“Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, VI. Worship (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter XVII
Character is Fate, said Novalis, and Farfrae’s character was just the reverse of Henchard’s The narrator contrasts the two men after their quarrel, quoting Novalis on character as destiny.
The Satires of Horace and Persius, Lesson: Bad language can reveal bad desires
Bad language can reveal bad desires. Persius treats inflated style and corrupt prayer as signs of spiritual illness. The poems teach that language is not a neutral covering over character; it exposes what a person worships.
Selected Sermons, Summary
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Twenty Years After, Full Text
the Swiss troops and the military who surrounded the Palais Royal that the people were possessed of arms The shade of Richelieu was Mazarin Now Mazarin was alone and defenceless as he well knew Foreigner he ejaculated Italian that is their mean yet mighty byword of reproach the watchword with which they assassinated hanged and made away with Concini and if I gave them their way they would assassinate hang and make away with me in the same manner although they have nothing to complain of except a tax or two now a...
Selected Sermons, Introduction
Christmas Card-playing was in those days an amusement especially favoured at Christmas time Latimer does not express disapproval though the Reformers generally were opposed to it The early statutes of St John's College Cambridge forbade playing with dice or cards by members of the college at any time except Christmas but excluded undergraduates even from the Christmas privilege In these sermons Latimer used the card-playing of the season for illustrations of spiritual truth drawn from the trump card in triumph a...

“Life is a search after power”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, II. Power (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Reynolds v. United States, Lesson: History as a dictionary
History as a dictionary. Finding no definition of religion in the Constitution, Waite turned to the Virginia controversy of the 1780s and to the words of Madison and Jefferson. The opinion is an early and influential example of the Court using founding-era history to give content to the religion clauses.
Obergefell v. Hodges, Medical lens
The opinions concern the constitutional status of marriage, democratic process and religious liberty and contain no medical discussion.
Reynolds v. United States, Medical lens
In discussing criminal intent, Waite cites the English case Regina v. Wagstaff, in which parents who, from religious conviction, did not call medical help for a sick child were held not guilty of manslaughter, an early judicial reference to religious objections to medical care.
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
to the Constitution which expressly declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press thereby guarding in the same sentence and under the same words the freedom of religion of speech and of the press insomuch that whatever violated either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others and that libels falsehood and defamation equally with heresy and false religion are withheld from the cog...
Poems, in Two Volumes, London, 1802
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: The poet calls on Milton to revive England.

“Manners are the happy ways of doing things”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, V. Behavior (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

The Plague, Part I and Part V
Cottard's attempted hanging at the start of the epidemic and his breakdown and arrest when it ends.
Characters, The Late Learner and related sketches
Socially awkward self-fashioning shows personality as public performance.
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Chapter 18, closing sentence
We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict. The last line of the book, comparing the present to the decline of Rome and calling for new communities that sustain the virtues.
The Plague, Lesson: Exile and separation
Exile and separation. The closing of the gates turns every citizen into an exile, separated from absent loved ones or from the future. Rambert's attempts to escape and Rieux's silent separation from his dying wife show two ways of living with that loss.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, II
of different enjoyments and revelry and merriment were the business of every hour from the dawn of morning to the close of the evening These methods were generally successful few of the princes had ever wished to enlarge their bounds but passed their lives in full conviction that they had all within their reach that art or nature could bestow and pitied those whom nature had excluded from this seat of tranquillity as the sport of chance and the slaves of misery Thus they rose in the morning and lay down at night...

“God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, VI. Worship (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Agnes Grey, CHAPTER III. A FEW MORE LESSONS
as it was it was a trial of strength between her and me in which she generally came off victorious and every victory served to encourage and strengthen her for a future contest In vain I argued coaxed entreated threatened scolded in vain I kept her in from play or if obliged to take her out refused to play with her or to speak kindly or have anything to do with her in vain I tried to set before her the advantages of doing as she was bid and being loved and kindly treated in consequence and the disadvantages of p...
The Fall, Lesson: The good deed that serves the self
The good deed that serves the self. Clamence's Paris life was full of genuine acts of help, yet he discovers that he performed them chiefly to stand above others and enjoy his own image. The novel probes the difference between doing good and wanting to be seen as good.
The Journal of George Fox, Preface by William Penn
Seed came or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ to whom was the promise and to all men only in him in whom it was Yea and Amen even life from death immortality and eternal life This the prophets foresaw and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it which was the height of the Mosaical dispensation and which ended in John s ministry the forerunner of the Messiah as John s was finished in him the fulness of all And God that at sundry times and in divers manners had spoken to the fathe...
Paradise Lost, Book XII
O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense! That all this good of evil shall produce, And evil turn to good Hearing of the Redeemer, Adam marvels that God will bring greater good out of the Fall.
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, ch. 19, secs. 18-21
Calvin's argument that the apostolic anointing with oil and the gift of healing were temporary, set against the Roman rite of extreme unction.

“Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, VIII. Beauty (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Essay on Burns, p. 11
To the ill-starred Burns was given the power of making man's life more venerable, but that of wisely guiding his own life was not given The essay's governing antithesis between Burns's gift to others and his failure to govern himself.
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, Letter XII (packing her books)
with only the Duty to one's Neighbour, torn out Item in the inventory of Shamela's library: her copy of The Whole Duty of Man has lost the part about obligations to others.
Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II, Full Text
Fletcher's WOMAN'S PRIZE WHICH this may PROVE Footnote knew So the vo The to knowe Footnote lords So the to The vo Lord Footnote injury This verb frequently occurs in our early writers Then haue you INIURIED manie Lyly's ALEXANDER AND CAMPASPE sig D ed It would seem to have fallen into disuse soon after the commencement of the th century in Heywood's WOMAN KILLED WITH KINDNESS we find You INJURY that good man and wrong me too Sig F but in ed injury is altered to iniure Footnote ALL So the to mitted in the vo Foo...
Hayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution), Full Text
the fostering care of the mother country and I must confess while listening to the gentleman I thought the appropriate reply to his argument was to be found in the remark of a celebrated orator made on that occasion They have grown great in spite of your protection The gentleman in commenting on the policy of the government in relation to the new states has introduced to our notice a certain Nathan Dane of Massachusetts to whom he attributes the celebrated ordinance of by which he tells us slavery was forever ex...
The Provincial Letters, Full Text
tom ii Paris Footnote How came you said the archbishop to M Beurrier to administer the sacraments to such a person Didn t you know that he was a Jansenist Recueil Footnote Recueil de Port-Royal pp Petitot p Footnote Walchii Biblioth Theol ii Footnote The title of Nicole s translation now rarely to be met with is Ludovici Montaltii Litter Provinciales de Morali et Politica Jesuitarum Disciplina A Willelmo Wendrockio Salisburgensi Theologo Several editions of this translation were printed I have the first publishe...

“There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, IX. Illusions (Project Gutenberg #39827).Quote card

Invisible Man, Lesson: Speech and its uses
Speech and its uses. The narrator is rewarded, used and endangered by his gift for speaking, from the graduation speech to the eviction and the funeral oration. The novel is full of sermons, speeches and folk tales, and invites readers to weigh how words move crowds.
The Conquest of Gaul, Book I.39–41
Panic spreads through Caesar's army before facing Ariovistus, with soldiers making wills and weeping in their tents; Caesar restores morale by a speech.
Fathers and Sons, Introduction
to the permanent in art--that it was inevitable he should write this book this tragi-comedy of age and youth of the old order and the new the conservating fathers and the revolutionary sons E R The following is the list of Turgenev's chief works ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF WORKS Russian Life in the Interior or the Experiences of a Sportsman from French version by J D Meiklejohn Annals of a Sportsman from French version by F P Abbott Tales from the Notebook of a Sportsman from the Russian by E Richter Fathers and Son...
Church History in Plain Language, Lesson: Continuity and change
Continuity and change. The book traces how the church adapted to very different cultures over two thousand years.
Minersville School District v. Gobitis, Full Text
the denial of an absolute But to affirm that the freedom to follow conscience has itself no limits in the life of a society would deny that very plurality of principles which as a matter of history underlies protection of religious toleration Compare Mr Justice Holmes in Hudson County Water Co v McCarter U S S Ct L Ed Ann Cas Our present task then as so often the case with courts is to reconcile two rights in order to prevent either from destroying the other But because in safeguarding conscience we are dealing...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The list of limits at the start of Fate and the turn in 'Intellect annuls Fate.'
The rules of economy in Wealth.
The description of the eyes in Behavior.
The 'confession of character' passage in Worship.
The final scene of the soul among the gods in Illusions.

Key terms and names

Transcendentalism: A New England movement that held that truth is known by intuition beyond the senses.
Fate: Emerson's word for the limits set by nature, heredity and circumstance.
Compensation: Emerson's belief that every act brings its own reward or penalty.
Aphorism: A short, memorable statement of a general truth.
Over-Soul: Emerson's name for the universal spirit he believed all souls share.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What does Emerson mean by Fate?
Comprehension What advice does he give about money in Wealth?
Interpretation Why does Emerson think manners matter?
Interpretation What does it mean that our opinion of the world is a confession of character?
Interpretation Why does Emerson call belief in luck shallow?
Big Question Is there any chance in the universe, and how should the answer change the way we live?

Faith Connections

Matthew 7:3-5 (Scripture)
Christ's warning about the mote and the beam parallels Emerson's claim that our judgments reveal our own character.
Proverbs 16:33 (Scripture)
The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord; compare Emerson's denial of chance with biblical providence.
Titus 2:12 (Scripture)
Paul's call to live soberly, righteously and godly gives a Christian frame for Emerson's practical counsel.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Life is bounded by fate, but a moral law runs through all things, and the person who thinks and acts in accord with it gains power, wealth of the right kind and freedom; therefore conduct, not luck, decides a life.

Rhetorical device: aphorism. In Fate Emerson compresses his argument into three words: 'Intellect annuls Fate.'

Debate: Resolved: that a person's character matters more than his circumstances.

Memory Work

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.
VI. Worship. A short, searching sentence about judgment and character.

Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.
I. Fate. Emerson's compact answer to fate.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose one essay and summarize its argument in a page, then say where you agree and disagree, giving reasons.

Comparison with Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays): Compare Self-Reliance with Fate. Has Emerson changed his mind about how free a person is?

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Collect five of Emerson's aphorisms from one essay and rewrite each as a short rule for school life.
Essay
Emerson says our opinion of the world is a confession of character. Explain and test this claim with examples from history or literature.
Dialogue
Write a conversation between Emerson and a Christian pastor about whether there is any chance in the universe.

The Conduct of Life

Abstract

Key figures

Summary

Virtues in this work

Plot or Argument

Lessons

Fate and freedom

Our judgments reveal us

Earning, spending and character

Context

Composition

Reception

Comparisons

Quotes

For Students

Reading Guide

Watch for

Key terms and names

Seminar Questions

Faith Connections

Logic and Rhetoric

Memory Work

Writing Prompts

Creative Prompts

Further Reading